Justifying Health, Productivity and Energy Benefits—Building Investment Decision Support (BIDS™) Tools

Volker Hartkopf, Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Carnegie Mellon University

Given the growing demand for sustainable buildings by federal and private sector clients, professional practices are "tooling up" all over the world to deliver high-performance, environmentally responsive, "green" buildings. However, investments in sustainable, high-performance building solutions and technologies are still limited by first cost decision-making, and life cycle tools are still largely inaccessible to professionals. A new building investment decision support tool —BIDS™— has been developed by the NSF/IUCRC Center for Building Performance (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University, with the support of the Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium (ABSIC).

This cost-benefit decision support tool presents the results of over 150 life cycle data from field case studies, laboratory studies, simulation studies, and other research efforts. The substantial environmental cost-benefits of a range of advanced and innovative building systems, to deliver—privacy and interaction, ergonomics, lighting control, thermal control, network flexibility, and access to the natural environment— can now be quantified by professionals. This tool supports professionals in building life-cycle justifications for high-performance/green design innovations, and illustrates the amazing return on investments possible, through a range of cost-benefits —from the "immediate dollars" of energy efficiency, waste management, and churn, to the "long-term dollars" of improved indoor environmental quality, productivity, and health. Environmental design principles and life-cycle decisionmaking are critical to our professional commitment to improving quality of life.

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